Lightning took a look down at the group ahead of them before holstering his pistol then taking out his sniper rifle. He looked back at Dash and said, "Dash, cover my back." Unfolding his bipod, the pegasus would set the gun down and lay down on the earth, putting the building in his scope and scanning the surrounding land. This didn't look like slaver activity. This was way too bloody. Perhaps if he was lucky, maybe he could catch a sight of something in the distance. If he was not, well...at least he'll have the two groups covered.

Bakewell started back when the cat leapt out and screamed a horrible nightmarish screech. The mare found herself unable to do much more than stare wide eyed with her heart beating furiously in her chest as the cursed feline as it ran away.

When the accursed feline was finally out of sight, Bakewell shakily turned her head to face Cuppa.

“Heh. Bad luck.” The mare joked, though the grin on her face was a bit forced at best.

“I guess it was nothing to be worried about. Let’s keep moving. Uhm…" She paused and swallowed. "...ladies first?”

Kira did not like this the cottage it all smelled wrong, and that was not the smell of death that was heavy around this place. There was just something in the air that felt like all this was a trap and that all of them had already fallen into it, and had far to late figured out that it was a trap.

We have to get out of here. She thought as she walked around following slowly after Kes holding her launcher tight mentally preparing her self for what was to come.

Cuppa jumped in shock as the cat jumped out and shrieked at the pair of them before rushing off. Bakewell attempted a joke, accompanied by a forced grin which Cuppa returned with a grin not too different from her own.

Kestrel reappeared and headed to the door, opening it without pause just for the both of them to encounter the stench of death, causing Cuppa to balk momentarily as she turned her nose away to take a breath before entering. She wasn't looking for anything specific, she just wanted to see what was in there.

Didn't take long before Cuppa spoke up. "Ah'm gunna wait outside, ah think." She said as she stepped back outside, taking a glance around to see if that cat was anywhere near.

There was little detail as far as who had killed the ponies within, and any detail was probably obscured under rot and dried blood. As he stepped over a corpse, Kestrel quickly got the impression that these bodies had been looted, but after shifting one to get better access to the other side of the room, the appearance of a 10mm SMG under its bulk suggested it hadn’t been looted too thoroughly.

Searching further, Kestrel found more weapons stashed in a cupboard two 10mm pistols and a plasma pistol, buried under a small pile of loose rounds and a couple of spark batteries. Apparently, these ponies hadn’t cared much for organisation. Even if Kestrel was interested in the grisly task of stripping the corpses of their armour, it didn’t look very good – mostly just pieces of leather and battered metal haphazardly cobbled together into something resembling barding.

Outside, Galactic Dash noticed that there seemed to be some faint tracks heading off into the distance. Getting closer would reveal maybe four or five sets of hoofprints headed toward the cottage, and another, similar-looking collection of hoofprints leading away.

Loot:

10mm SMG

2 10mm pistols

Plasma pistol

A makeshift chest made from a milk crate, a few squares of sheet metal, and some cable ties, containing 240 caps

Kestrel really didn't see much in the spread he wanted, the large griffon only claiming the 10mm SMG for himself and leaving the rest for the others. He was nice enough to set the things out for the others so they wouldn't have to dig through the gore to get it all.

After that he'd move outside, leaving the smells and sites of the cottage behind.

Seeing that Dash was currently occupied in searching for something Kestrel motioned over to him and spoke. "Find anything?" he asked, voice low and cold....colder than usual really. Strange.

Bakewell had decided that Cuppa had the right idea. She stayed outside and was tempted to ask Kestrel what exactly he had discovered, but decided that he would tell the group on his own if it was anything other than sickening raider slaughter.

Bakewell would pick up any and all of the caps or equipment that nobody else nabbed before departing. There was no reason to let things go to waste. Some ponies out there weren’t lucky enough to have even smaller guns or the most basic of armor. They would get much more use out of these items then a stupid stinky black cat.

After taking any remaining items she would trail after the rest of the group when they decided to depart.

Lightning's scan of the area proved what the pegasus had suspected earlier. The area was clear. No sign of the attackers and no sign of anypony or wildlife coming to get them anytime soon. He could see Kes coming out of the cottage and bring out a small pile of loot with him. Letting out a small sigh, he set down his sniper rifle and turn to Dash, who apparently had found something. "Dash, I'll be right back."

Lightning took a quick glance around before leaping off the ground and extending his wings into a glide, using very few wingbeats to make his way down to the cottage for the loot. Looking over what Kestrel brought out, the only thing he cared for was caps. But it didn't seem right to just take all of it so he only picked out 40 of them. When he was done with that, he made a quick flight back to his sniper rifle and took back his position.

Bakewell hadn’t really examined the building closely, and hadn’t managed to make out even the marking on the door. All she knew that there were a lot of innocent-until-proven-otherwise ponies or griffons that had obviously been slaughtered brutally and, by the smell, left to rot. The fact that Kestrel had brought out weapons was enough to guess that the attackers hadn’t been in it for wealth which, much to the mare’s disappointment, ruled out slavers pretty handily. Slavers probably wouldn’t have killed property for no reason out in the middle of nowhere.

“I don’t know, Cee.” Bakewell quietly answered back, temporarily shifting her attention from the pile as Flash stopped by to examine the items. Bakewell wasn't really sure why he had abandoned his position for 40 caps that he could have simply asked her for later, did he not trust her to take the caps? Did he not think she would give him his share? Probably.

“Maybe it was raiders? They’re into that whole horrible ‘murder for fun’ thing.”

Dash noticed that Lightning had apparently seen where he had been looking and found the tracks as well, a few seconds before he was going to mention them to him. Dash nodded and and re-zeroed the scope on his carbine for longer ranges. Dash looked over to Kestrel as he walked over and asked him if he had seen anything, "Yeah, there's a few sets of tracks. 4 or 5 heading towards the cottage, about the same number heading away."

Kestrel nodded, eyes narrowing as he thought. Small group, then again Raider's never traveled heavy; to busy being hopped up on chems and such to gather like that if they were traveling.

Could have been Slavers, but this whole thing reeked of raider style. The Issue was that symbol...most raiders couldn't tell you their right hoof from their left, let alone draw something like that on a wall. Still there were always outliers...or maybe someone's trying to frame raiders? Cultists perhaps?

Lots of possibilities, no real facts. Yet.

"We've our quarry then." Kestrel said looking down and tracing the tracks now revealed to him. Normally he'd of seen them before but for some reason he hadn't. He didn't stick with that thought for long, blaming some random thing for the mishap then moving on.

Kira looked at the ponies and gryphon in the group and sighed, there was nothing left here for them to see. She watched the tracks that Dash had pointed out and looked over to Kestrel as she seemed to be well tracking them away from the cottage. She nodded in agreement to Kes as she looked back at the rest of the group before she prepared to head of after the tracks. "Well what are you waiting for?"

After Lightning had taken his cut of the caps, Bakewell quickly swept the remaining caps into her bags, and then stuffed the rest of the firearms in after them.

Having tracks to follow gave the group aim and focus. With renewed purpose, they set off after the trail, leaving the grisly cottage and the many questions it raised behind them.

The trail led on for some distance, crossing back across the west road and into some rolling hills. Soon, the trail became more marked, and the number of hoofprints increased from makeshift trails into something more reminiscent of a road, presumably due to more frequent traffic.

Finally, they crested a hill and found the source of all the hoofprints.

Before them, covering a fairly large area, was a somewhat lively compound. Whilst it was somewhat difficult to make out details, they could make out a rusted but intact chain-link fence surrounding two ramshackle buildings. One building, near the only gate in and out of the compound, was a tall two-storey building. The other was only a single-storey; attached to its side was a heavy barred fence. From here, they could see a smudge of colour representing a collection of ponies behind the heavily barred fence.

Back at the gate, their first problem presented itself. There were two guards standing at either side of the entrance. They appeared bored and distracted, but probably not enough to sneak past.

The greatest card they currently had was that nopony seemed to have noticed them, yet.

Gazing at the compound with the crest of the hill covering them all, Cuppa frowned disapprovingly as she spotted the fenced area within the compound. "Ah'm thinkin' this is th' slaver's base." She quietly said to the others before glancing over at them. "Wha' should we do? Ah dunno if sneakin' in is gon' work..." Finishing her opinion, Cuppa looked at Kestrel, perhaps he'd seen a way to sneak in?

Kira observed the compound from a distance as well from where the rest of the group was looking at the chain fencing that surrounded the two buildings that was inside it. It was true that sneaking into this small place was out of question, but attacking them out right it was not right. They could not be sure that they where slavers just by looking from this distance they needed more time to observe.

Lightning packed up his weapons and began to move out with Kes and the others when they had found the hoofprints. As they walked over the hills, they would eventually walk over one hill that led them to a compound. It looked like a slaver compound but after what they had seen back at the cottage, it made the pegasus suspicious.

Lightning took a glance over at Kestrel to see what the griffon was possibly planning. The two guards in the front of the compound would prove hard to sneak around as they were facing outward. However, the good part was, nopony in the compound was alerted to their presense yet so they had a chance of sneaking in if they approached from the right direction. Another way was they could simply open fire but something told the pegasus that that tactic wasn't going to be the best one. The group could, however, split up, one group sneaking in, another group waiting and watching on the hill. Lightning had a pretty good vantage point from where he was but he would have to be careful that his scope didn't give away his position. "I can help provide cover from afar if needed. But I feel that we can probably get to the rear of this compound, us with wings can probably simply fly up and over the chain fence, dodging guards and finding out what's going on here. If not..." The stallion's voice trailed away as he looked towards Kes for another idea.

Kestrel unlike the others didn't speak at first. His mind to busy trying to formulate a plan that would work. The front gate would be the easiest way in for sure. Only two guards. Easy kills for both himself, and Dash.

A crossbow and a Hellsing was a deadly mixture.

After that what though? Hmm...that depends on the guards. If possible Kestrel and Dash could assume the guise of Slavers and move into the camp for up close and personal recon. Or Flash could just use his scope to scout the area out from the sky above or this very hill they were situated on.

"Dash. Two bolts. One for the guard on the right, one for left. I'll start left, move right. We'll need to dispose of them quickly afterwords." Kestrel said pulling out his Hellsing and taking aim.

"Lightning get on scope, glass the area. See if you can see whats going on around camp and maybe get details on the ones in the pen." the griffon ordered the pegasus behind him, voice showing he wasn't going to argue anything, as his talon began moving to the trigger.

The plan was simple, bolt both guards, kill them, dispose of the bodies. Then move from there. The air was still for a moment before Kestrel opened up with his rifle. Two shots timed one right after the other.

Pfft...Pfft

(32 AP Spent, firing twice, one bolt at the guard on the left, one on the right. Guns 100)

Dash looked at the camp, specifically the slave pen. He squinted at it intently, trying to pick out details of the ponies inside. Perhaps there was some hope within him that this would be the end of quest for his kidnapped brother, but he could not know for sure. Not yet at least. He looked over to Kes as he gave him instructions for taking out the two guards. It seemed as though they would split their attack power over the two targets. It made sense, Hellsing could fire its bolts alot faster than his crossbow probably could.

He got out his crossbow and readied it for his first shot. He had been considering the physics and ballistics of the weapon and was confident that he could adapt to the much slower bolts the weapon fired as opposed to the bullets he was used to firing. On their way over to the compound, on the trail of their targets, Dash had also been practicing reloading the weapon, so he was also confident with that.

He took up aim, compensating for the drop, aiming for the neck of his first target, reading himself for the shots. The subtle sound of Hellsing discharging was his signal.

Ftwoom...

Dash jumped into action, quickly nabbing a second bolt out of his pocket while using another of his hooves to redraw the weapon. Once he was ready to fire again, he heard the second shot from Hellsing, which he fired shortly after as well.

Ftwoom...

(Sneak 74, Guns 100, Firing his Crossbow at guard on the right (16 AP) Reloading (2 AP) Firing Crossbow guard on the left (16 AP))

Bakewell said nothing; she couldn’t do anything at this range besides wait while Kestrel and Dash jumped to a direct conclusion and moved directly for violence.

Just like she knew they would.

The other ponies’ tendencies to jump for their guns had been one of the main reasons she hadn’t shared the photograph with anypony besides Cuppa and Flash. Even showing the blue pegasus had been a controversial point in her mind.

Bakewell retraced the group’s steps slightly, putting some of the hill between herself and the assumed camp and crouching, for her own mind’s comfort if for no other reason. She didn’t want to be an obvious target should the camp have Flashs of its own sitting in those buildings.

Lightning simply watched as Kestrel took charge, as always, and without argument, the pegasus pulled out his favorite long-ranged weaponry. He moved away from the group, heading toward his left. The stallion would crouch down and move slow but hurried as once he got into position, he unfolded his bipod and laid down on the dirt. Keeping the sun in mind, he made sure to point his scope in a direction that would hopefully minimize the glint coming off his scope. Lightning could already see Kes and Dash moving for the two guards in the front and bringing his scope over the compound, he took note of as much as he could see.

Lightning looked about the camp through the scope of his rifle. There were a few ponies, all armed to some degree and milling about between the buildings, two or three of them standing around a small fire and talking to one another. Looking towards the back of the encampment, he could spot several dejected-looking ponies with some sort of heavy devices around their necks; it was hard to make out anything more detailed from here, though. Just for a second he thought he saw the flash of movement through the window of the taller building, but he couldn’t be sure; it was too hard to make out anything much in the buildings in general.

Hoisting his new crossbow, Dash aimed towards his quarry, then fired. The crossbow making a satisfying noise as the bolt speared towards its intended target. The weapon was a fine one indeed, and the bolt flew true, thudding into the guard’s neck. Quickly reseating the string and locking another bolt home, he swung across to the other guard and fired. Again, the bolt found its mark.

Kestrel fired his Hellsing; each time he fired the only noise was the satisfying hiss of pressurised air, the only indication that the weapon had loosed its deadly payload. Both of the bolts hit the unaware guards.

The guard on the right had been boredly cleaning his rifle with his magic when the bolts struck; he collapsed to the ground, grasping at a bolt that stuck out of his chest. He twitched once and became still.

The other guard didn’t fare much better. He seemed to leap back as the first bolt hit, and was propelled into the fence by the added force of the second, his mouth stuck in an ‘O’ of surprise. Bouncing off the fence, he crumpled to the ground. As his life began to fade, he feebly reached for his gun, and the crack of gunfire ricocheted around the encampment and hillside. Then, with a shudder, he became an unmoving heap on the ground.

(Can you check that your signatures are up to date, please? They’re useful for quickly finding info for combat.)

Oh great, instead of anything not involving flat-out killing the guards, this is what Kestrel comes up with. Cuppa had honestly expected something a little less violent, if not just as quiet as it had been... If it weren't for that one gunshot it would've been a completely silent job.

There was a hideous scowl on the previously friendly pony's visage as she started down the hill in a slow, measured walk. If that gunshot had alarmed the base, there was no point hiding now.

Kira cursed in her native tongue as she saw Kestrel and Dash engage the guards silently, but it really was a good plan they would need to take care even if these was slavers if the rest of the guards go alerted things would just go bad. As the sound of gunfire echoed from one of the guards she cursed again as she pulled out her grenade launcher, the time to be stealth was over and this was the time when she started to act.

Se would have to be careful with her shots not to hit friendlies with her blast, but being in the wasteland for more then a year had really helped her learn how to handle her weapon. The gryphoness started to move careful towards the camp making sure she moved from cover to cover as best she could. It was the slavers turn to act on the gunshot and when they did she would be ready.

Kestrel seemed to growl as Cuppa cocked off with an attitude and Kira began moving. One gunshot and they think its time to go hot? Both were new to combat for sure, the was Kes saw it the situation could go either way still. For all the slavers in camp knew their guards were shooting at vermin wandering the wastes.

And for all Kes knew, snipers or scouts had already reported his teams approach the second they were within range. Slavers were unfortunately smart like that. The griffon would know.

He spent 19 years being tortured, abused, broken, and used while under their control after all.

And what was with the 'oh we don't have to kill them, we don't know if their slavers yet' attitude from Cuppa? Kes didn't care if all they had done was even consider going into slaving. The second they did they forfeited the right to live in his book, and he was quite willing to help the Collector out a bit by thinning their damned ranks.

What was another gallon of blood in an already churning sea?

Silently, despite almost jogging, Kestrel moved forward towards the guards; taking the one on the right. Quickly, he began checking over the ponies form for anything useful/recognizable. A slaver band symbol or term of employment letter, keys to the gate or other doors, anything like that. Then he turned and took the ponies equipment. More caps at the store, or more gear for his team, depending on what the situation dictated.

He'd have dragged both the corpses away to hide them, but he had a feeling that was going to be pointless in a few seconds anyway. Not like he cared. Every slaver in this camp was dying today if Kestrel had anything to say about it; by stealth or by brute force, the choice was the slavers.

(Per 8, looting the guard on the right and looking for good stuff. Leaving the left guard for Dash.)